Ridgewood REORG photo by Boyd Loving
Menendez’s 2010 travel was not so hectic, records show
Friday March 15, 2013, 11:46 PM
BY HERB JACKSON
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
The Record
Bob Menendez has blamed a busy travel schedule for the two-year gap from the time he took flights to the Dominican Republic on the private plane of his friend and top campaign contributor to when he disclosed the trips and then paid for them.
A review of travel records provided by his office does show Menendez was a frequent traveler in 2010, taking 54 trips by air and 22 rides on Amtrak.
But 61 of them were between Washington and New Jersey, the kind of long-distance commuting, funded by the government, that nearly every member of the state’s delegation makes.
That leaves just 15 other trips Menendez took to raise money for himself or fellow senators. One of those trips was over three days in May that included flights on the private plane of campaign contributor Salomon Melgen. A campaign committee controlled by Menendez reimbursed the cost of those flights in 2010.
But Menendez did not disclose two later trips that year on that same private plane owned by Melgen.